the holiday Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Oh, Nancy Meyers. I thought The Holiday was endless pap, full of admittedly charming actors in predictable situations over the length of a Quentin Tarantino WWII riff or Michael Mann crime drama, and man, was I pleasantly surprised by Something's Gotta Give for precisely the first half before Diane Keaton's extended crying fit signaled the end of something playful and the beginning of something painful.

But this could be cute, this It's Complicated of yours. The trailer seems to suggest as much. Meryl Streep (in her third film of the year come Christmas time) finds herself torn between the renewed flame of her ex (Alec Baldwin) and the flirtations of her architect (Steve Martin). You know what, that actually seems surprisingly simple despite its title, and middle-aged romance is certainly in your wheelhouse, so the benefit of the doubt is indeed yours.

If I can just make one small request: keep it short. Keep it simple. The natural charm of even a cast like this can only go so far. Don't wear it out. Be romantic. Be comedic. And then leave us be. That'd be a gift I'd cherish above most.

If you love movie awards and dog shows, there's a new event that's perfect for you: the Fido Awards, which recognizes cinematic canines. Presented in conjunction with the London Film Festival, these awards were presented Sunday night with the top honor, "Best in World", going to five corgis -- named Poppy, Anna, Alice, Oliver and Megan -- that appear alongside Oscar-winner Helen Mirren in The Queen. The same dogs also won another award, "Best Historical Hounds for a dog/dogs in a film set in bygone days", beating out dogs from Control (I don't even remember a dog in this, which means it makes sense it didn't win) and Molière. Other winners include Travis, a Welsh cardigan corgi named "Comedy Canine for smochiest pooch in a romantic comedy " for his "method-acting" in Year of the Dog, Logan, a "Bernese Mtn English Mastiff X" named "Blockbuster Bowser -- best canine achievement in an action flick" for sharing a beer with Mark Wahlberg in Shooter, and dogs from the short film Dog Flap and the London Film Festival entry Far North. In addition to those from Control and Molière, losers included pups from The Holiday, Feast of Love, Shoot 'Em Up, The Savages (for some reason listed in the action category) and Paddy Considine's short Dog Altogether. Hopefully none of them were Old-Yellered because of their failures.

Isn't that cute? The Fidos are technically considered "the world's first-ever international awards ceremony for canine screen stars," but this isn't the first time awards have been given out to animal performances in film (I would be shocked if it were). Since 1939 -- after a horse was accidentally killed on the set of Jesse James -- the American Humane Association has honored animals in cinema and television with the PATSY Awards (yet apparently the first actual PATSY went to "Francis the Talking Mule" in 1951). Some of the obvious past winners include Lassie, the pig from Green Acres, the dog that played Benji (name: Higgins), Gypsy the horse (from Gypsy Colt) and Orangey the cat, who appeared in Rhubarb and Breakfast at Tiffany's. Unfortunately I can't seem to find a full list of the winners through the years, just this spotlight from TCM.

What is your favorite animal performance, canine or otherwise?

Tooling around online this morning, I came across a cutesy little story on Variety in which Robert Vernini tells us (with a wink and a nudge) which recent films will eventually be remade, who will star and how the whole thing will go down. He begins in the year 2012 where, according to Vernini, we will see a new version of Volver set in New Orleans, and starring Halle Berry. Ooohh, and Dakota Fanning takes over the Anne Hathaway role in a remake of The Devil Wears Prada (with John Travolta in drag as Miranda Priestley), while the Olsen twins attempt an updated version of The Holiday ... but the project gets canned when the girls keep forgetting who is playing who.

Having fun yet? Next up is the year 2017, where Steven Soderbergh remakes his own The Good German -- but this time, he finds a way to digitally add in performances by Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Berman and John Hodiak. After Happy Feet: The Musical hits Broadway, folks think it's time to bring that box office beast back to the big screen. Al Gore teams up with Aardman for An Inconvenient Truth: The Animated Musical, with Billy Crystal as the voice of Carbon Dioxide. And, whaddya know, Ms. Fanning is back -- this time as director -- for a remake of Dreamgirls, rewritten to follow the story of the Dixie Chicks.

It keeps going from there -- 2032 and 2057 make appearances -- and the remakes turn even more bizarre (Flags of Our Grandfathers?), but it poses an interesting question (one I shall ask you): Which of todays films have the potential to be remade in five, ten or twenty years from now?

The Oscars, the Golden Globes and those other movie awards are all well and good, but they're the same thing every year: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Motion Picture, etc., etc. Booooooring! We here at Moviefone thought we'd spice things up a bit, do something a little different just to give you movie lovers an awards program about which you can really be proud. And so this year we tapped Mr. Moviefone himself to distribute awards in categories that you'll most likely never EVER see at the Academy Awards. And you know what? Those other awards are weaker for it. And so we present the first annual Mr. Moviefone Awards.

But first, here's a special message from the one and only Mr. Moviefone ...

Here's what I've learned after reading some of your comments ... you guys are way better at this as I am. So add your very own award, and sometime in mid-February I will choose and then broadcast the top 10 on one of my TV or radio outlets. Probably the one I want to get fired from the most ... because I'm pretty sure it will happen. And of course we will broadcast it right here on Moviefone.com. So let 'er rip. We're not easily offended.

Actor Most Likely to Make You Want to Throw Crap at the Screen: Robin Williams in 'RV'

Actor Most in Danger of Becoming Overexposed: Hugh Jackman for starring in six films this year

Actress Most in Danger of Becoming Overexposed: Scarlett Johansson -- not so much because she's in too many movies; she's just likely to pop out of her dress

Best Actor/Actress Nobody Saw: Tie between Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps, both in 'Half Nelson'

The "Why Can't I Be Matt Damon" Award: Ben Affleck

Lamest Couple: Tristan and Isolde in -- you guessed it -- 'Tristan and Isolde'

Actress Most Likely to Split Six Pitchers of Beer and a Bucket of Wings With You (and Look Sexy While Doing It): Elizabeth Banks in 'Invincible'

Funniest Performance in a Drama: Tie between Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin, both in 'The Departed'

Most Vindicated Actor of the Year: Daniel Craig in 'Casino Royale'

The Most Humiliating Sequel (aka The "No Matter How Old I Get I'm Going to Act Like a 20-Year-Old Tramp" Award): Sharon Stone for 'Basic Instinct 2'

"Biggest Act of Hubris" Award: M. Night Shyamalan for casting himself as a writer whose work will change the world in the not-so-world-changing 'Lady in the Water'

Best Use of a Severed Body Part on Screen: Jack Nicholson using a corpse's hand for emphasis in 'The Departed'

Best Movie Line for Picking Up Chicks: "Very nice. How much?" -- Sacha Baron Cohen in 'Borat'

Movie That Should Have Required Guys to Trade Their Manhood Instead of Cash for Admission: 'The Holiday'

Most Over-Hyped Movie of the Year: 'Snakes on a Plane'

Best Movie Nobody Saw: 'Little Children'

Worst Movie Everybody Saw: 'X-Men: The Last Stand'

Funniest Movie of the Year: 'Borat'

Scariest Movie of the Year: 'An Inconvenient Truth'

Biggest Rip-Off of the Year: 'The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause'

The "Why on Earth Do They Still Let Them Make Movies" Award: Tie between Harrison Ford in 'Firewall' and The Wayans brothers for 'Little Man' (and every other movie they've ever made)

Movie Most Likely to Induce Vomiting: 'Jackass: Number Two'

The Most Porn-Like Movie Title of the Year: Tie between 'Stick It,' 'Little Man,' 'Glory Road,' 'She's the Man,' 'The Pink Panther' and 'Failure to Launch'

POST: What movie awards would you bestow this year?

WATCH IT: Mr. Moviefone's weekly TV spot

What's that joke about the talking farm animal who gets caught in a web and can't seem to move anywhere? Turns out I was way off on my predictions this week, as The Pursuit of Happyness held on to its early lead and finished with a very respectable $27 million. Sure, it's not the biggest opening for a Will Smith film, but you have to hand it to the guy (and his son) for beating two highly anticipated kids films. (Was Charlotte's Web highly anticipated? I don't even remember.) Oh, but Smith and Smith Jr. weren't the only ones who had a marvelous weekend ... and, for those of you who have friends at Sony, you might want to act really nice towards them this holiday season seeing as their bonuses will be ginormous.

With its 13th number one opening this year (the most ever for a studio in a single year), Sony has grossed $1.573 billion at the domestic box office -- yes, the most ever for a studio in a single year. What's that joke about the guy at Sony with a drug habit who was just awarded a ginormous holiday bonus? With that said, Eragon managed to pull off a decent $23 million landing it in sole possession of second place (But is it enough to continue the trilogy?). And what the hell happened to Charlotte's Web? $12 million? A lousy $12 million? Dakota? Are you there? Do you see this girl? Did you not smile enough during the film? Heck, your smile alone should guarantee at least $17 million. Those Happy Feet ($8.5 million) penguins and The Holiday ($8.2 million) rounded out the top five. And, although curiosity and Braveheart fans helped it walk away with last week's number one spot, Apocalypto dropped down to sixth place this week, finishing with $7.7 million.

Full numbers after the jump.

Say all you want about Mel Gibson's driving, audiences were curious enough (about another Gibson film? about the Mayan civilization? about whether or not there would be a slew of Jewish jokes -- like that one about the Rabbi who wondered into the forest and was chased by a tribe for a little over two hours?) to show up and help Apocalypto finish in the number one spot this weekend. Granted, it's $14.2 million didn't break any records, and just barely beat out a film with one helluva odd cast (Jack Black, Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz? Who cast this film -- identical twin sisters who hate one another?), but it still managed to finally knock Happy Feet and Casino Royale out of the top two spots.

Now comes the fun part -- did Apocalypto generate enough buzz to carry it onward and upward? Or will it crash after people realize they have to read words on the bottom of the screen for a really long time? My personal prediction? Depending on whether Oscar throws him a bone, I'd say Apocalypto tops out at around $43 million domestically. As previously noted, The Holiday ($13.5 million) took the weekend's second spot, while Happy Feet ($12.7 million) lingered around in the third position. Casino Royale continued to feed off penguin leftovers; it took fourth with $8.8 million. Perhaps the idea of Leonardo DiCaprio with a strange accent hurt its opening, or maybe the competition was just too tough (I know folks must have been dying for a nice, wholesome chick flick) -- regardless, Blood Diamond finished fifth with $8.5 million.

Unaccompanied Minors ($6.2 million) gut stuck duking it out with Deja Vu ($6.1 million), while The Nativity Story ($5.6 million) dipped a bit more this week, despite the fact that it's playing in 3,083 freaking theaters. This year's two dreadful Christmas comedies, Deck the Halls ($3.9 million) and The Santa Clause 3 ($3.3 million), rounded out the top ten.

Full numbers after the jump.

Sony Pictures announced Thursday that for the first time, they will exceed $3 billion in worldwide ticket sales this year. This isn't any kind of record, though; other studios have surpassed the $3 billion mark before (three times before, in fact), but it's still good news for Sony -- and it is only one aspect of their amazing year at the box office. Their domestic take for 2006 is expected to pass the industry record of $1.573 million, an amount and record they reached back in 2002, for any studio in a single year. Another industry record they've already broken this year is for the number of releases to open at #1. So far, this number is 12, but Sony still has two more titles (The Holiday and The Pursuit of Happyness) to release before the year ends.

For the third time in the past five years, Sony will likely finish out the year with the greatest domestic market share for box office gross. The major contributor to Sony's success in 2006 was The Da Vinci Code, which had an international gross of more than $750 million. Other titles that helped out include Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Casino Royale and, surprisingly, The Pink Panther (hey, that's two remakes that originally starred Peter Sellers!).

Overall 2006 has been a seemingly good year for the motion picture industry, especially considering all the commotion last year over the "Great 'Slump' of '05". And yet, according to Box Office Mojo the total domestic gross for all movies in 2006 is right now $500 million less than the total of 2005 -- though some reports say that this year is up 4% over last year (not a big deal since '05 was down 6% from '04). Thankfully, B.O.M. has a handy YTD comparison, so we can actually see how 2006 stands so far against the same point in years '02 thru '05, and comparatively we're experiencing maybe only the third best year in five. We still have a few weeks left until the year closes, and a lot of movies are coming out in those few weeks, so the final tally could possibly outdo 2004's or 2003's grosses, but I wouldn't bet on it.

We've all been there. You and your friends are racing to get to the theater on time when someone says, "What's the hurry? There's going to be twenty minutes of trailers anyway." You fix the offending party with an icy stare and weigh the pros and cons of kicking him or her in the shins. People who say such things are, in fact, NOT your friends. Trailers are part of the film-going experience, and acquaintances who don't get that should be shunned like a beta max copy of Roller Boogie with a permanent tracking glitch.

Trailers expose us to films and genres we might not otherwise seek out. They can show us new ideas, and that's what this installment of Trailer Park is all about: films that buck the trends and do things that, while not necessarily unique, are out of the ordinary...

• Arthur and the Invisibles
  With so many computer animated kids' films coming out these days, they've all started to look alike to me. Arthur and the Invisibles follows the road less traveled by mixing live action with computer animation and taking on a darker, more sinister look, while still being lighthearted enough for the kids. Ten-year-old Arthur is played by the very talented Freddie Highmore, whose performance in Finding Neverland left nary a dry eye in the theater, then scored himself some serious cool points by working for Tim Burton as the title character in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Arthur's home is about to be demolished unless he can pay off the bank with the legendary treasure of the Minimoys (actors deemed too small to play Vulcans tiny elf-like beings). There are lots of celebrity voices, including David Bowie as the head villain.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you asked yourself, "How in the world did I get here? More importantly, is it at all possible to escape and still manage to live a somewhat normal life?" I shouldn't even need to ask this question because, at one point or another, I'm sure all of you have been in one of those uncomfortable places -- suffocated by the fear and intensity of the situation at hand. What do I do? Where do I go? How will I survive? Is the pizza place still open?

Yes, it sucks -- you're in over your head. Somewhere along the way, be it on purpose or by mistake, everything got away from you. Suddenly, life is caving in and all you're capable of is acknowledging the fact that, well, you're f*cked. Most of the time, it's our curiosity that gets the best of us. We wonder, we ponder, we use our imagination to invent the perfect scenario. Only problem is, there's no such thing as the perfect scenario -- just risk. And if you decide to take that risk, be prepared to battle. If not, you'll drown. That's life.

All of the following films feature characters who are in over their head, caught up in situations that felt right early on, but soon realized things would get a whole lot harder before that light at the end of the tunnel became visible. I've always said that life is like a game of poker -- the guy sitting next to you always wins. However, watching them win helps you to appreciate what matters most. Welcome to this week's Trailer Park: